How did Democrat women end up like this?

 

Biden administration delays menthol ban again as election threatens to go uhh . . . up in smoke

The Biden administration has once again delayed banning menthol cigarettes, infuriating officials of public health groups who say the products are responsible for taking hundreds of thousands of American lives.

On Wednesday, the White House quietly updated its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website to reflect that any final ban on menthol wouldn’t take place until at least March. Even then, it’s expected to take years for menthol products to be off store shelves. The ban was previously supposed to take effect by the end of December. ...

Black Americans are affected most. Nearly 85% of Black smokers use menthols, compared to 30% of white smokers, according to the FDA.

More.

Racist FDA is going to ban menthol cigarettes

I never thought I'd admit that there is, in fact, systemic racism in America, but there it is.

What's next, fried chicken and watermelon?

Story.

Ain't it great to be a Democrat?

Absence of non-East Asian coronavirus fatalities so far makes some wonder if there ever will be any

Time will tell.

There are considerations other than genetic racial predisposition or vulnerability to infection, however.

As the Chinese are now reporting, the coronavirus infection affects older men much more than women. In the initial phase of infection in Wuhan, for example, 68% of patients were men. Strikingly, as recently as 2015, 68% of Chinese men were said to smoke cigarettes, making them predisposed to infection because of impaired lung health.

Still, no death so far has involved someone without East Asian ancestry, which may indicate, as with the SARS coronavirus epidemic in 2002-2004, that fear of a global pandemic resulting in millions of deaths may not be reasonable and that this may remain an East Asian epidemic. It could be that just as sub-Saharan Africa is responsible for 80% of genetic sickle cell disease China may be prone to respiratory disease for some as yet unknown genetic reason.

Liberal Michigan's mentally disordered legalize marijuana, then turn around and outlaw flavored e-cigs

Michigan becomes first state to ban sales of flavored e-cigarettes

13 million young adults 18-29 use marijuana but the FDA's Scott Gottlieb is shocked, shocked I tell you, by 3.6 million young vapers

This administration, like the rest of this country, is completely effed up.

US orders restriction on e-cigarette sales; youth use surges:

Tampa (AFP) - US regulators Thursday ordered sharp restrictions on sales of e-cigarettes, as national data showed a 78 percent single-year surge in vaping among young people, with two-thirds using fruit and candy-flavored products. ...

"These data shock my conscience," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, referring to the latest data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. ...

A total of 3.6 million US youths reported vaping at least once in the past month, the data showed.

"These increases must stop. And the bottom line is this: I will not allow a generation of children to become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes," said Gottlieb.

Meanwhile Gallup reported in August that 24% of the 54 million Americans aged 18-29 regularly or occasionally use marijuana, over three and half times as many as vape, but the FDA's Gottlieb isn't in the headlines over that.

The world upside down: FDA to ban menthol in cigarettes as 10 states legalize recreational marijuana

Threat of a looming menthol cigarette ban weighs on tobacco stocks:

FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb plans to announce this week that the agency will move forward with a ban on menthol cigarettes in conjunction with a crackdown on e-cigarettes to curb "epidemic" levels of teen use, senior FDA officials told CNBC last week.

War on cigarettes but utter capitulation on pot

China per capita cigarette consumption is 114% higher than US

The Chicoms consume about 4.7 cigarettes per day per capita, about 7.1 packs a month, despite recent attempts to tax the habit out of existence (2350 billion cigs in 2016 divided by population of 1.379 billion).

Americans consume 2.2 cigarettes per day per capita, about 3.3 packs a month (258 billion cigs in 2016 divided by population of .3231 billion).

Life expectancy in the US is 79 years, in China 76 years.

Deaths per 100,000 from coronary heart disease in China are pushing 100, in the US 78.

34 lyin' cheatin' Muslim convenience store owners and a guy named "Dale" indicted for conspiracy

From the story here:

A federal grand jury has indicted 35 store owners on federal conspiracy charges for trafficking contraband cigarettes, distributing controlled substances and money laundering . . .:

Mohammed Almuttan, aka Abu Ali, 35, St. Louis, MO

Rami Almuttan, aka Abu Louay, 33, St. Louis, MO

Hisham Mutan, aka Abu Mohamed, 41, St. Louis, MO

Saddam Mutan, aka Abu Ali, 24, St. Louis, MO

Mazin Abdelsalam, aka Abu Mohammad, 38, St. Louis, MO

Najeh Muhana, aka Abu Yazan, 41, Fairview, NJ

Fares Muhana, aka Abu Yamama, 40, Cliffside Park, NJ

Ayoub Qaiymah, aka Abu Faysal, 23, Richmond, VA

Naser Abid, 23, Chicago, IL

Yadgar Barzanji, aka Abu Siver, 47, St. Louis, MO

Wafaa Alwan, 50, St. Louis, MO

Ahmed Abuali, aka Bazilla, 31, North Bergen, NJ

Mohammed Kayed, aka Mohammed Fayez, 21, Clifton, NJ

Momen Abuali, 20, Little Ferry, NJ

Firat Sevindik, 42, Cliffside Park, NJ

Mohammed Mustafa, 30, North Bergen, NJ

Mohammad Karashqah, Abu Yazid, 47, North Bergen, NJ

Fayez Sheikha, 46, Mishawaka, IN

Jihad Shihadeh, Abu Malik, 58, Chicago Ridge, IL

Ismael Abadi, 57, Carol Stream, IL

Abed Hamed, Abed Fawzan, 39, Greenville, NC

Maher Hamed, Abu Alazara, 33, Swansea, IL

Abdel Adi, 25, Oak Lawn, IL

Muhanad Khatib, Abu Alamin, 36, Chicago, IL

Eyad Awad, 38, Chicago, IL

Dale Garbin, 60, Kankakee, IL

Hayder Al Fatli, 40, St. Louis, MO

Kutlay Guvener, 35, Chicago, IL

Saad Al Mallak, 30, Dittmer, MO

Hassan Abdelatif, 29, Collinsville, IL

Mahajir Naz, 32, St. Louis, MO

Talal Abuajaj, 23, St. Louis, MO

Basem Hamdan, aka Abu Ramiz, 57, St. Louis, MO

Zainal Saleh, 29, St. Louis, MO and

Ibrahim Awad, 39, St. Louis, MO

Bring back waterboarding, Mad Dog Mattis can go have his beer and a cigarette

James E. Mitchell, here:

It is understandable that Gen. Mattis would say he never found waterboarding useful, because no one in the military has been authorized to waterboard a detainee. Thousands of U.S. military personnel have been waterboarded as part of their training, though the services eventually abandoned the practice after finding it too effective in getting even the most hardened warrior to reveal critical information.

During the war on terror, the CIA alone had been authorized to use the technique. I personally waterboarded the only three terrorists subjected to the tactic by the CIA. I also waterboarded two U.S. government lawyers, at their request, when they were trying to decide for themselves whether the practice was “torture.” They determined it was not.

Is Obama's Interminable Recourse To Racism Charges Marijuana-Induced Paranoia?

Obama recently blamed the sudden drop in his popularity on racism in the country, a surprisingly paranoid response from someone who has won two national elections rather decisively.

Maybe he's still smoking more than cigarettes in the White House (on the night of Benghazi, perhaps?):

Christian Thurstone, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado and the head of the teen rehab center Adolescent STEP: Substance Abuse Treatment Education & Prevention Program, told ABC News recently that 95 percent of patient referrals to the program are for marijuana use.

“Anecdotally, yes, we’re seeing kids in treatment here who have paranoia and seeing things and hearing things that aren’t there,” said Thurstone. “Adolescent exposure to marijuana [raises] risk of permanent psychosis in adulthood.”

For more from this story, go here.

Obama thinks he has achievements, which must mean he is suffering a psychosis

From the long story in The New Yorker, here, by image-accommodating biographer David Remnick:

As Obama ticked off a list of first-term achievements—the economic rescue, the forty-four straight months of job growth, a reduction in carbon emissions, a spike in clean-energy technology—he seemed efficient but contained, running at three-quarters speed, like an athlete playing a midseason road game of modest consequence; he was performing just hard enough to leave a decent impression, get paid, and avoid injury.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's see.

Starting with the economic rescue, Obama said at the time in early 2009 that he had more than enough on his plate without having to worry about the financial crisis.

So who fixed that?

Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. While everyone was fixated on the controversy over TARP and the crony capitalist, fascist character of that bailout in the mere hundreds of billions of dollars as millions of Americans were losing their homes, behind the scenes the Fed was providing multiple trillions of dollars of short-term loans to just about any bank or business in the world which was in trouble, at rock-bottom low interest rates which homeowners could only dream about, right into 2010. They all got fixed while 5.6 million Americans went on to lose their homes through 2013.

And what did Obama do in response to that?

Disgracefully fire Bernanke in public by saying he'd overstayed his time at the Fed, but that came only long after everything looked like it was truly stabilized. And I do mean "looked". The fact of the matter is extraordinary measures remain in place at the Fed because the banks' condition is still not healthy enough to do without them. When those end, the crisis will be truly over, not before. The rescue is still underway, with no end in sight.

Then there's the 44 months of job growth claim. Well, the truth is we are in the 72nd month of the jobs recession as we speak today, the longest jobs recession in the history of the post-war by a long shot. Bush's had been the longest previously, at 47 months. And it is estimated that the current jobs recession will not be over for another 6 months, which means we'll finally have matched the number of payroll jobs which existed at the time the recession began, but only after about 6.5 years have gone by.

But that says nothing about a return to normalcy. Include the shortfall which exists in the numbers because of net population growth over the period and the country will still be in a serious jobs deficit once the jobs recession is over, and for a long time to come without some major driver for jobs appearing on the scene.

Finally, I'm not sure how anyone measures a reduction in carbon emissions when China keeps them billowing into the air at a record rate, burning coal and oil in huge quantities. Obama can point to the closing down of coal power plants in this country if he wants, but all that does is make American electricity more expensive as China's waves of pollution waft ever eastward over the Pacific, polluting our air, water and farmland.

But if anyone's contributing to the reduction in carbon emissions in this country, it's the American worker who isn't working. Travel on the road in this country has been stuck at levels first reached between 2004 and 2005 for five long years because so many people no longer have a job to which to commute. Every month that goes by shows the same statistical result: no progress in miles traveled back to the levels of the 2007 peak. It's an odd thing to be taking credit for.

If it is clear from these facts that Obama is delusional and lives in a separate reality, it is also clear from Remnick's story that Obama has to work hard at crafting it, even about what is probably at the heart of his mental problems in the first place: 

When I asked Obama about another area of shifting public opinion—the legalization of marijuana—he seemed even less eager to evolve with any dispatch and get in front of the issue. “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

Is it less dangerous? I asked.

Obama leaned back and let a moment go by. That’s one of his moves. When he is interviewed, particularly for print, he has the habit of slowing himself down, and the result is a spool of cautious lucidity. He speaks in paragraphs and with moments of revision. Sometimes he will stop in the middle of a sentence and say, “Scratch that,” or, “I think the grammar was all screwed up in that sentence, so let me start again.”

Why does the smartest president ever have to edit everything, all the time, until it makes sense to him?

Who do you call to have the president committed?

Looks Like He Could Have Used a Cigarette

Obama: When Life Begins Was "Above My Pay Grade"

But not now:

Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women's health and reproductive freedom 

[at the expense of someone else's life],

and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters

[like buying health insurance, giving food and water to the chronically hospitalized, eating hamburgers and french fries for lunch, smoking cigarettes around your kids, spanking them, purchasing and using trigger locks . . . and once upon a time selling your slaves' children to the highest bidder].

I am committed to protecting this constitutional right


[except for the aborted child]

[which by the way was never intended by the framers of the 14th Amendment, but I digress].

I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption

[all of which are an intrusion on private family matters].

And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams

[except for fatherhood and the right also to kill their unborn children].

-- Barack Insane Obama, January 22, 2011, here

In August of 2008, here, deciding when a baby is entitled to human rights was above his pay grade.

Obviously it isn't now. A baby isn't entitled to protections. A father isn't either. Only a woman is. That's what Obama is all about, not equality of rights, but special rights for protected classes of human beings. And that makes him no different than the slave holders of the past. 

Security Theatre with Jeffrey Goldberg

If you haven't read "The Things He Carried" by Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic, November 2008, here, you should. 

He successfully sneaked the following past security and onto aircraft at major airports all across America:

pocketknives, matches from hotels in Muslim countries, dust masks, rope, cigarette lighters, an 8 oz. tube of toothpaste in a front pants pocket, box cutters, a Beerbelly wrapped around his stomach containing two cans of beer, and a variety of terrorist-themed souvenirs.

Oh yeah. He also tore up fake boarding passes in full view in a bathroom and no one reported him. And he used one to get on a plane with a 12 oz. bottle of saline no one verified was saline.

"B.O." Apparently Stands For "Bows Often"

This slide show displays photographs of nearly fifty world leaders shaking hands with the Japanese Emperor, going back to early 2003. Not a single one of them bows, save for you know who. And it's no little bow, either, but a real back breaker.

Is this another example of Obama's dope-addled brain, detached from reality, behaving oddly?

Because the First Lady sometimes mentions how her husband stinks in the mornings when he wakes up, wags have a little fun with this, noting that his initials "B.O." stand for "body odor." Chalk it up to all that tar and nicotine from the cigarette smoking, which comes out the pores by morning, just like garlic does. But if the president keeps up with this bowing thing, we'll have to change that to "bows often."